Comment Re: Video editing... (Score 1) 501
I'm just going by reviews that use superlatives like "insanely quiet". Apple claims an impressive 12bDA at idle, which is going to be hard to hear even with the unit on top of a desk, but it is easy to turn the fans off at idle. I am assuming that the unique thermal design is really being exploited to minimize fan noise.
I disagree that about the competition being "very quiet". Quiet in a relative way, sure, but not as quiet as I would like. For reference, consider the recent Xeon powered HP workstation (non-liquid-cooled) under my desk for reference. It is actually quite nice compared to the screaming hair dryer fans of old, but, under load, the whooshing of air through it is plainly audible even with a gas fireplace fan blasting away 2m from my ears. Turning off the HP under these circumstances gives me a sense of relief from its noise. Compare that with this description: "during an Apple demo, a high-end Mac Pro, complete with upgraded processor and graphics cards, was live-rendering multiple 4K videos, and we couldn’t hear the fan over the normal room noises."